[bee]

I'd like to start a discussion on ways to promote your website for free: what people have tried; viral marketing; what's ethical, what isn't; and how to get online communities excited about your business without spending a cent.

For example, MySpace. I was pretty suprised with the success the movie Stick It had by building a MySpace profile to promote the movie leading up to its release. I first read about it here, and am wondering if smaller companies may have an advantage over larger ones. We're forced to use word-of-mouth instead of renting ad space, which is more effective at turner viewers into customers.

I think it's a good thing, and can't wait to see more of it.

[akula]

we're adopting several promotional techniques which we're engineering into our product at yeblogger.com. This includes widgets and toolbars. the point is to help users promote your product to other users simply by using it, also - retention is important. the effectiveness of any marking technique disappears if you can't retain your customers.

now, more importantly. do you want to promote your site? send me a pm and I will build you a blogging community like yeblogger.com. within 90 days, I'll guarantee you that every significant blogger relevant to your industry will be on your mailing list, so you can promote your site to people who can promote it to other people (through their blogs) until the cows come home.

i think this would be a much better investment in marketing rather than SEO, or straight advertising. with a blog community - you have residual value. ie, the money you spend on your community can be recovered when you sell your community.

this is not the case with ads; once you spend the money - you never see it return

[Slevin]

Obviously article submission. Forum signitures on any sites you post on. Depending on your service/niche, you could sell a product on ebay relating to your service/niche and puit a banner ad to your site in the listing, or a link. Even if it means creating an e-book on the niche/service in question.

[ginginca]

Email signatures
Back window of your van/car (well I guess that one's not completely free .... but almost)
Multiple Blogs hosted at different locations that cross-link
Feedburners on one site that link to others
Joint Ventures (such as Ezines)
Free e-book giveaways
Product recommendations (word of mouth and online)

[Slevin]

few more:

Competitions - affiliates can be incluided into the competition (read the article about forum promotion and apply anything that is possible for you to do for yoursite). The prize doesnt have to be monetary but it has to have value. For example, if you have a page with lots of traffic you could offer a 1 month text link, or if your a webdesign company offer a free design.

Forms on registering to refer friends.

I had a look on your site, and if thats the sit you are wanting to promote you could make it memberbased, get people to register, then allow invite their msn contact lists to comment on their ratings, or rate similar films

[gambit]

Search Engine Submissions, Directory Listing, and Classified ads are some of the great ways to promote your website for free.

You can start with SmallBizPages.us or .ca for directory listing and SmallBizAds.us

[kozuch82]

Try MySpace.com

[Aletheides]

When it comes to forum signatures, you can find great deals over at www.sigtrader.com. When it comes to working myspace for all the juice it can give you, I recommend www.adderrobot.com.

These are all rock bottom marketing techniques that are super effective.

[preneur]

Some of the most effective "free" website promotion is article marketing. By writing useful articles relating to your industry, and distributing them to various article directories across the net, you gain two huge benefits:

1. First, it establishes relevant links to your site from sites and blogs which feature your article. This is great for search engine ranking, and it provides a stream of targeted traffic to your site.

2. It establishes you as a knowledgeable source of information for your industry, and steady article distribution can keep your prospects returning to your site for the latest industry information.

For the time it takes to write a good article, and distribute it to the major article directories, I haven't seen any single method that is more effective.

[krame18]

Aletheides, have you used the bot from www.adderrobot.com? It looked interesting, but you never know until you ask or totally screw yourself by trying without knowing.

Thanks.

[Dwaltin]

Quote:

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Originally Posted by preneur

Some of the most effective "free" website promotion is article marketing. By writing useful articles relating to your industry, and distributing them to various article directories across the net